Skip to content
The Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

The Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$2.0M
Granted FY2024still arriving
1
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$2.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Animals$9.0MEnvironment$300kOther$0
02FY2024 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,001,724
Median grant
1
States reached
$40M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PANTHERA$2,001,724
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%SMALL WILD CAT CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $100k → 8%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC: $1.6M → 10%PANTHERA: $2.2M → 17%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $1.0M → 28%NORTH CAROLINA ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $100k → 14%WILD FOUNDATION: $150k → 12%ALLEY CAT RESCUE INC: $100k → 11%PANTHERA: $2.0M → 17%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $678k → 28%WILD FOUNDATION: $150k → 12%ALLEY CAT RESCUE INC: $100k → 11%PANTHERA: $700k → 17%Alley Cat Rescue: $50k → 11%Panthera: $315k → 17%Panthera: $25k → 17%PANTHERA (FOR ARTERY - JAGUAR PROGRAM): $15k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

80%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$7.4M · 4 repeat orgs$1.9M to everyone else

4 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
5

Total granted

$7.4M
$1.9M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+52%
+87%

Still filing today

100%
80%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • PC
    PANTHERA CORPORATION
    5× · 2019–2024 · $5.2M · revenue +64%
  • WC
    Wildlife Conservation Society
    2× · 2022–2023 · $1.7M · revenue +2%
  • IW
    INTERNATIONAL WILDERNESS LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC
    2× · 2022–2023 · $300k · revenue +1%

Funded once

  • WC
    WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $1.6M · revenue +87%
  • NORTH CAROLINA ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY INC
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue -7%
  • SW
    SMALL WILD CAT CONSERVATION FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue +749%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
World Wildlife Fund Inc

Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)

Environment
2
Wilderness Conservation Foundation
Environment
3
African Wildlife Foundation Inc

Awf's mission is to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern africa. we work to equip african governments, institutions, business, and communities with the tools, insights, and support they need to define, own, and realize a…

Animals
4
Wildlife Alliance Inc

Wildlife alliance is the leader in direct protection of forests and wildlife in tropical asia. our mission is to combat deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and poverty by partnering with local communities and governments.…

Animals
5
Sri Lanka Wild Life Conservation Society

The Sri Lanka Wild Life Conservation Society was set-up to help protect and conserve the diminishing of Sri Lanka and to make the local and international community aware of it's endangered status. It is dedicated to the conservation and…

Environment
6
International Snow Leopard Trust

The international snow leopard trust aims to ethically conserve snow leopards and their high mountain ecosystems through partnerships with indigenous peoples and local communities, and through research to improve the understanding of snow…

Animals
7
Saving Scottish Wildcats Inc

Environmental group focused on saving the worlds rarest exotic cat species

Animals
8
Conservation Society of California

Through management of oakland zoo, the conservation society of california deepens connection with animals, saves wildlife, and inspires champions for the natural world.

Animals
9
Forever Wild Wildlife Rescue
Animals
10
Carolina Tiger Rescue

Carolina tiger rescue's mission is saving and protecting wildcats in captivity and in the wild.

Animals
11
International Primate Protection League

Protecting the world's remaining primates by monitoring and exposing illegal trade, supporting a worldwide network of overseas sanctuaries and ngo's, publicising the plight of abused primates, and operating a sanctuary for resued gibbons.

Animals
12
Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Wildlife Conservation Network Inc; the most unlike its peers is Wildlife Conservation Society. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

8 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 9 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

PANTHERA CORPORATION: $5,221,935 · AnimalsPANTHERA CORPORATIONWildlife Conservation Society: $1,678,000 · AnimalsWildlife Conservation SocietyWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC: $1,587,500 · AnimalsWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC+4 more: $500,000 · Animals+4 moreINTERNATIONAL WILDERNESS LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC: $300,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $15,000 · Other
Animals$8,987,435Other$315,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPANTHERA CORPORATION: $5,221,935 over 5y, 11% of budgetWildlife Conservation Society: $1,678,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC: $1,587,500 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetINTERNATIONAL WILDERNESS LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC: $300,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetAlley Cat Rescue Inc: $250,000 over 3y, 3.3% of budgetNORTH CAROLINA ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetSMALL WILD CAT CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 17% of budgetMountain Lion Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 4.1% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA3.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust?

    Find your warmest path to The Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 9 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2024, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Ayers Wild Cat Conservation’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home